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Whenever the “first of a demographic” is made news, it’s actually insulting the rest of that group. It’s like saying, “most black people are terrible at chess, but we found one that’s actually good at it! Golly, who knew?”

Her race shouldn’t have anything to do with it. Being the first [insert race] shouldn’t be a big deal anymore. They should be lauding her for being a great chess player.

When Tiger Woods rose to fame, it was a big deal because blacks have traditionally been kept out of golf and country clubs by non-ethical, if not illegal means. It was just very hard for a black man or woman to get his/her foot in the door. Since I don’t follow the sport of chess I honestly don’t know for a fact, but I always assumed that there wasn’t a similar paradigm here. Is chess another sport that been difficult for a minority to excel in this field, or has it just been a coincidentally “white man’s sport”?

Mike K-
I am not a black woman, so I can’t speak to that experience, but I always feel proud when someone is the first woman or girl to accomplish something. It means that we are making progress toward equality and that we have a new female role model that didn’t exist when I was a girl. It means more to us than it does to you.

And when something is traditionally a white man’s sport, that alone is a barrier to anyone else succeeding in it, sadly.